A PROJECT TO HONOR TERRI ON HER BIRTHDAY

My sister Terri would have been 67 years old today.  Hard to believe it has been a year since she became sick.  The time seems to have flown, but her memory is still so close to the surface.  I want to take you back to a happy memory.

After Terri became sick, I was going through a chest of drawers and came upon a Ziploc bag with an uncompleted project.  But this wasn't just any crosstitch project.  This project had a lot of memories attached--and they were memories of my sister, Terri.
 

The story begins back in 1989, when my sister Terri drove the two of us down to Rockhome Gardens near Arcola, Illinois where the annual Quilt Show was held.  Along with some of the most amazing quilts I have ever seen were booths filled with crafts of the latest rage--counted cross-stitch. 

We first found this newly revived craft a few years before when again,  Terri and I spent vacation days in Raleigh-Durham, NC.  The bug bit both of us, but on this day in Arcola, the fever grew when we saw booth after booth of cross-stitch artists and their designs.
 

I was drawn to a booth that had a square French blue striped tablecloth sewn with rich, red apples and French phrases.  The name of the booklet was French Country Breakfast. This blue striped cloth is all the rage today and who would have thought in 1989 that this design would be timeless.
 

 

   For those of you who knew Terri, she insisted that I approach the designer in the booth and ask for her autograph.  Of course I did.

 

 

When I returned home, I immediately started the tablecloth and finished about 75% of it.  I then put it in a zip lock bag and time went by.  I got married, raised two daughters and moved 5 times.

 

Now, there was something inside me that pushed me to finish this cross-stitch.

A few years ago, Terri being the generous soul that she always was, gave me her lighted magnifier to ease my cross-stitch sewing.  I stashed it up in the craft room and realized that with my eye sight these days, I was going to need a little help.  I found the light and proceeded to complete this project.

This next picture shows exactly what I see through the magnifier.  What a difference the magnifier shows!

 

On two sides of the cloth, the French 'tarte aux Pommes' translates in English to  'apple pie'.

All four corners have an apple in the corner.  The remaining two sides have a design of smaller apples.

Once the stitching was completed, I wanted to ensure that there would be no raveling on the backside of the tablecloth.  I purchased some light weight Pellon at Hobby Lobby.  It is easy to apply as it is an iron-on textile. All of the underside of the tablecloth was measured and Pellon was ironed on to the sewn surfaces only.

This following picture shows the Pellon before it is ironed on.

All four sides of the Pellon are now ironed on to the back of the tablecloth.






 The round oak table was a perfect setting for the latest completed project.

I wanted to make a side note on Terri's influence on my own crafting skills.  When I was finishing up this tablecloth, I felt a calmness fall over me as I was stitching.  It was as if Terri was still here with me, and I believe she really was.

Happy Birthday in Heaven Terri.